Listen to Pissed Jeans Track “The Bar Is Low”:
Pissed Jeans frontman Matt Korvette sings, “The speed of evolution is getting slower” on the band’s new track “The Bar Is Low“, and, in lieu of recent social/political developments, this is more than just a sarcastic turn of a phrase. Unfortunately, it’s our cultural reality. Thankfully, then, we still have bands like Pissed Jeans using their irreverent humor and biting wit to reflect back to us some of the ugly conditions of this new modern life. On “The Bar Is Low”, the group takes aim at the kind of neanderthal male attitude exemplified in Billy Bush and Donald Trump’s now infamous exchange, but, really, it cuts deeper than that by demanding all men examine their attitudes towards women. Korvette explains:
“It seems like every guy is getting outed across every board of entertainment and politics and music. There’s no guy that isn’t a total creep. You’re like, ‘No, he’s just a dude that hits on drunk girls and has sex with them when they’re asleep.’ Cool, he’s just an average shithead.”
Indeed, the bar has lowered when “average shitheads” are normalized and elected president, and the four guys in Pissed Jeans are not about to let us forget that! The band will release their fifth studio album, Why Love Now, on February 24th via Sub Pop. The record was produced by Arthur Rizk (Eternal Champion, Goat Semen), as well as No Wave legend Lydia Lunch. In talking about the band’s working relationship with her, Korvette adds,
“I knew she wasn’t a traditional producer. We wanted to mix it up a little bit. I like how she’s so cool and really intimidating. I didn’t know how it was going to work out. She ended up being so fucking awesome and crazy. She was super into it, constantly threatening to bend us over the bathtub. I’m not really sure what that entails, but I know she probably wasn’t joking.”
